1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer systems, and in particular to methods and mechanisms for maintaining an order of transactions in a bus fabric.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems on chips (SoCs) are becoming increasingly complex with ever increasing numbers of agents and circuits within a typical SoC. Often, data will be shared among the different agents of the SoC, and a bus fabric may be utilized to connect the agents to each other. When an agent is generating and sending multiple transactions through the bus fabric, the agent expects the transactions to be processed in the order they were generated.
For example, if a CPU generates a write request for a specific location and then later issues a read request for the same location, the CPU expects these requests to be processed in order. Otherwise, if the read request is processed prior to the write request, the read request will receive stale data. Therefore, maintaining an order of transactions in the bus fabric is essential for ensuring the proper functioning of the SoC.